Monday, January 24, 2011Amgen Acquires Firm For $1 BillionThousand Oaks-based biotech giant Amgen said Monday afternoon that it is acquiring Biovex, a Woburn, Massachusetts-based developer of treatments for melanoma and head and neck cancer. Amgen said it will pay up to $1 billion for the company, including $425M in cash at closing and up to $575M in earn out based on regulatory and sales milestones. BioVex develops OncoVEX, a novel oncolytic vaccine in Phase 3 clinical development. The firm was venture backed by Morningside Venture Investments, MVM Li (More info...)
posted on Monday, January 24, 2011(Full story)
SPONSOR POST: Find jobs at socalTECH.comLooking for a high tech job in Southern California? Despite the economy, Southern California's high tech job outlook is better than it has ever been, with hundreds of open positions and many companies eagerly seeking high tech talent. Some positions posted to the site recently:
Sr. Linux System Engineer, Santa Monica, Adconion Media Group
Tech Lead Adserving Engineer, Santa Monica, Adconion Media Group
Technical Project Manager, Malibu, Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp.
IT Infrastru (More info...)
posted on Monday, January 24, 2011(Full story)
UberMedia Buys MixxPasadena-based UberMedia, the newly renamed Twitter advertising and application provider, announced today that it has acquired Mixx. Mixx operates an online site which allows users to find social content. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. UberMedia said the acquisition would add to its family of applications, which now include UberTwitter, Twidroyd, and Echofon. UberMedia was, until Friday, known as PostUp, and headed by Idealab's Bill Gross. On Friday, PostUp said it was re (More info...)
posted on Monday, January 24, 2011(Full story)
Interview with Matthias Galica, ShareSquareFor this morning's company profile, we thought we'd connect with ShareSquare (www.getsharesquare.com), a newly funded Los Angeles startup focused on QR barcodes -- 3D barcodes -- focused on musicians and entertainers. ShareSquare recently received a $150,000 seed round of funding form angel investors Paige Craig, John Frankel of ff Assett Management, and Hacker Angels' Jeff Miller and Roy Rodenstein, among others. We caught up with Matthias Galica, the firm's founder, to hear more about the comp (More info...)
posted on Monday, January 24, 2011(Full story)
FREEjit Gets $5.5MStealthy Internet startup FREEjit has raised $5.5M in funding, according to numbers released in the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers/NVCA MoneyTree report. Freejit is based in Newport Beach. Details on the funding have not been announced, however, Sean Ellis, the CEO and Founder of FREEjit, indicates on his LinkedIn profile that the firm is backed by Polaris Ventures, True Ventures, Index Ventures and First Round Capital. Ellis is the former VP of Marketing at Xobni and LogMeIn, and has been an adv (More info...)
posted on Monday, January 24, 2011 (More)(Full story)
Central Desktop Hails GrowthPasadena-based Central Desktop, the developer of cloud-based, business collaboration software, reported today that it had what it described as "record growth" in 2010. According to the firm, it had a 111 percent increase in Enterprise Edition gross bookings in 2010, and also increased its staff by 155 percent during the year. No financial details were released by the company, and the firm did not say what those number translated to in terms of financial growth. Central Desktop said new customers (More info...)
posted on Monday, January 24, 2011(Full story)
Zadspace Raises $4.2MEl Segundo-based Zadspace, a provider of technology which prints advertising on mailing labels and packaging, has raised $4.2M in a funding round, according to details released via last week's PricewaterhouseCoopers and NVCA MoneyTree report. Details on the funding have not been disclosed by the company. Zadspace is venture backed by DFJ Fontier and Crosscut Ventures. Zadspace is run by Todd Outten, who has formerly been at Kedidi Wireless and H30 Media, as well as Sony Pictures Digital, Silicon (More info...)
posted on Monday, January 24, 2011 (More)(Full story)
United Online's Helfand Departs, Joins AuditudeJeremy Helfand, the President of United Online's Media Group, has departed the Woodland Hills-based firm and ended up at a Palo Alto startup. According to Palo Alto-based Auditude this morning, Helfand has joined the company as CEO. Auditude develops technology to help companies monetize their online video. Helfand had previously headed by advertising and partnerships for United Online's Adcurate, Netzero, Juno, Classmates, FTD and MyPoints brands. Auditude is venture backed by Granite Ventures, (More info...)
posted on Monday, January 24, 2011 (More)(Full story)
Local.com Launches Social Buying UnitIrvine-based Local.com, the operator of local business search sites, said today that it has launched a new, Social Buying Business unit. The new unit will focus on group buying sites, and will be based on the firm's recent acquisition of group buying site iTwango. Local.com said that it has named Malcolm Lewis as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the new unit. Lewis was most recently founder of Fablistic, a social recommendations service. He also has served as a SVP and GM of Local.co (More info...)
posted on Monday, January 24, 2011(Full story)
uSamp Ties With GutCheckEncino-based uSamp, the provider of technology and services for the online panel and surveying market, said that it has teamed with GutCheck, a provider of online qualitative research. uSamp said it will provide automated deliver of screened and qualified participants to GutCheck's online qualitative market research studies. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Denver-based GutCheck is providing a service to help agencies and marketers to conduct market research; the firm is backed (More info...)
posted on Monday, January 24, 2011(Full story)
Vitesse Adds New Switching ICCamarillo-based Vitesse Semiconductor said today that it has expanded its line of Carrier Ethernet semiconductors. According to the firm, its new Tiger (VSC7480) switch engine adds Layer 3 routing and MPLS switching support. The new chip is targeted at backhaul aggregation, cloud computing, video, smart-grid, IPTV, IP routing, optical line termination, and gateway applications. Vitesse is a developer of a wide range of high speed semiconductors for the networking industry.
posted on Monday, January 24, 2011(Full story)
Genoptix Acquired By Novartis For $470MSan Diego-based Genoptix, a publicly held provider of laboratory services to the hematology and oncology market, said this morning that it is in a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by Novartis. According to Genoptix, the deal is worht $25.00 per share of its stock, or $470M in equity, or approximately $330M in enterprise value. Genoptix said the offer is a 27 percent premium over its closing price of $19.76 on Friday. Genoptix was advised by Barclays Capital and Cooley LLP in the deal.
posted on Monday, January 24, 2011(Full story)